CHEYENNE, WY – The #18 Laramie County Community College volleyball team pushed their winning streak to 10 straight matches after taking down Trinidad State College in four sets (25-21, 25-21, 28-26, 25-18) and North Platte Community College in four, 25-17, 25-17, 19-25, 25-8 on Friday afternoon at Storey Gym.

The wins also gave the Golden Eagles 20 in their last 21 matches played and tied their longest winning streak of the season, with a chance to surpass it on Saturday when they return to conference play with a match against Gillette College at 2:00 pm.

"The streak is awesome, but we have bigger goals than that. It may sound cliche, but we are literally just preparing for one opponent at a time," Head Volleyball Coach Zach Shaver said. "On a day like today where we had back-to-back matches, our team did a really good job of preparing for the first one, going and getting some food, scouting the next one, and playing a good second match."

LCCC 3 Trinidad State 1 – 25-21, 25-21, 28-26, 25-18

The Golden Eagles were in an early rhythm in the opening set with the Trojans and held a 7-3 lead after the first ten service points. TSC rallied together though and on a 12-3 run were able to take control of the match back at 16-10 and forced a LCCC timeout.

That was when the Golden Eagles turned momentum around, winning nine of the next ten points on the way to reclaiming the lead at 19-17.

Both teams refused to back down during the next stretch, resulting in three ties and two lead changes to bring the match to a 21 all draw. The Golden Eagles finished the match out on an Addyson McArthur service run of four straight points and took a 1-0 lead in the match thanks to the 25-21 set win.

The second set saw the momentum carry over with the Golden Eagles and LCCC held a 10-6 lead midway through. Trinidad State fought back to tie the match at 13 all and from there the two sides would be neck and neck the rest of the way, with ties again at 14, 18, 20, and 21. LCCC only lost the lead once in that stretch though, and again showed their late resolve to win the final four points of the set on two Demi Stauffenberg kills and an ace to win the set 25-21 for the second straight time and take the commanding 2-0 lead.

Set three was a different story.

Trinidad State responded to the Golden Eagles by digging in and pushed their own lead to 16-10 to force an LCCC timeout. That was well timed, and a 4-0 run was the result, and another 4-0 run followed a few points later to even the match at 19 all going into the final points.

Neither team backed down and the next 16 points saw seven ties and five lead changes between the teams and the match went to extra's with the Trojans staying alive with a gutty 28-26 win to force a fourth set.

"It was definitely a little frustrating," Stauffenberg said. "But I was really proud of us coming back out swinging and performing the way we did in the fourth set."

As has been the case this year, the Golden Eagles didn't wait around in the fourth by taking a commanding lead early on and led 6-2 on two more Stauffenberg kills and an ace from Famke Zomer.

The lead ballooned on a seven-point service run from McArthur that pushed the lead to 15-5 and LCCC wouldn't look back from there despite a few small pushes by the Trojans which cut the lead to six at one point and the Golden Eagles finished the 25-18 to take the match 3-1.

LCCC was paced in the match by a new career high of 24 kills from McArthur and 16 more from Stauffenberg. As a team, LCCC hit .183 on 175 attacks in the match. The team also added eight aces with three from McArthur and a team high four from Sadie Christiansen.

Kate Ohlsen quarterbacked the team to 46 assists for a new career high.

"There was a lot of communication and I really felt like talking with the setter was really there today," Stauffenberg said. "I felt like Kate really stepped up and was confident on the floor and was a leader for us and that helped all of the hitters today."

On defense, four Golden Eagles finished with double digit digs including 34 from Christiansen to top the list. McArthur and Stauffenberg finished with 14 each and Zomer added another 13.

"Coach has really been on us about moving our feet, going to the ball, and not giving up," Zomer said. "And we are more connected to each other so we know which people should take which balls so that helps a lot on defense."

The Golden Eagles also spread around 14 block assists and one solo block at the net.

LCCC 3 North Platte CC 1 – 25-17, 25-17, 19-25, 25-8

The opening set of the match began with a tense exchange through the middle of the set with the score tied at 12 before LCCC looked like they might take control, building on a 3-0 run, only to see the Knights answer back with two short runs of their own to tie things back up at 17 all.

That momentum was short lived, and the Golden Eagles didn't mess around on the final stretch, taking the set on an 8-0 service run from Ohlsen to finish it 25-17.

Set two was a different story at the start. The offense for LCCC pushed them ahead 10-5 and it had North Platte on their back heels. After a timeout, the Knights followed the gameplan of the opening set to bring it back to within one point at 17-16 before déjà vu showed its head, and the Golden Eagles finished the second set with an emphatic run, winning eight of the next nine serves to go up 2-0 on a 25-17 set win.

A long day may have come back against LCCC in the third set. Looking for the sweep, the team found themselves down 10-9 to the Knights but wasn't ready for the run that followed where NPCC rolled off a 10-1 run to take a dominant 20-10 lead.

From there it was just mathematics and despite closing the set to just four at 22-18, the Golden Eagles couldn't erase the deficit and once again went to a fourth set.

As has been the case all season, the fourth set proved to be one that was never in doubt. The serving game for LCCC shined brightly and they went on a long run early thanks to a pair of Christiansen aces and again later on a pair of Stauffenberg aces, finishing on a 10-0 run to close out the set 25-8.

"I would love to finish in three when we are up 2-0, but if we finish the fourth like we just did, I'm okay with it," Shaver said. "I think it's about 50 percent of us taking it a little bit easy, and 50 percent the other team really stepping up and playing better ball. Volleyball is a game of momentum switches and if you've had the momentum for two sets, you might lose it for set three."

"I think we are trying to do too much to compensate for the points we get against us and I feel like that is what is stopping us," Zomer said.   

The numbers added up well for the Golden Eagles, with three players hitting double digit kills. McArthur added another 15 to her 39-kill day and Stauffenberg finished with 14, just ahead of Elysiana Fonseca who had ten.

Ohlsen spread the ball around for 38 assists and as a team, they finished with 11 aces to only two serving errors. The team had 19 aces in the two matches during the day.

"I think that is something we really focus on is our serving and passing game," Stauffenberg added. "We serve at weaker passers and that allows us to get them out of system and keep us in system more."

Fonseca also was strong on the net with one solo block and four assisted blocks, and as a team the Golden Eagles recorded seven over the match.

The team doesn't have much time to rest before they are back on the court against Gillette College on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 pm for their Spike Out Polio match, where they will also be hosting a winter clothing drive for local families in need. Tickets for the match can be purchased at www.golccc.com.